I. Artifact Name

Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. at Lorraine Motel

II. Image

civil-rights-movement-18.jpg
Joseph Louw/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images


http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/civil-rights-movement.htm/printable


III. Event Represented by the Artifact/Significance

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by a single shot while giving a speech on the balcony of Room 306 to striking sanitation workers. Dr. King stayed at the Windsor/Lorraine Motel, within walking distance from Beale Street, because the motel was one of the only motels in Memphis that was opened to Blacks. Theories arose quickly surrounding the assassination and whether or not James Earl Ray could have been the single assassin.


IV. Date and Place

The assassination occurred on the evening of April 4, 1968 in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.


V. Multimedia Found on the Internet




VII. Map

martinlutherking_lorrainemotel.jpg


VIII. Curators

A, Blalock and L. Shore